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Environmental Study on Logan Airport Impact Soon to Be Released

Charlestown residents have been long awaiting the results of a Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) study of the environmental impacts of Logan Airports on the health of residents here.

The study was to be released in the spring but as the spring came and went environmental activists began scratching their heads wondering what the hold up was.

Now with the summer almost over and no health study released sources close to the study are now saying the report will most likely be released sometime in the fall.

One source said that DPH’s Suzanne Condon called the study ‘groundbreaking’ and is using a new model for studying environmental impacts that polluters like large airports pose on surrounding communities.

The study was implemented as part of East Boston Senator Anthony Petruccelli’s first piece of legislation back when he was a young state representative.

In 2008 state funding for the study was threatened but Petruccelli and east Boston Representative Carlo Basile filed legislation to make Massport, who runs Logan Airport, foot the bill for the $200,000 needed to complete the study.

Already bits and pieces of the study were leaked to the media. Two years ago a rough cut of the MDPH study suggested Logan is making residents sick and killing scores of residents here and in surrounding communities.

This of course came as no surprise to people living here who didn’t need a report to prove what residents here have been saying all along. However, the new data obtained helped drive home the point.

State health data obtained by WBZ showed that compared with the statewide average; there are elevated rates of heart disease in Charlestown, Everett, Hull, Malden, Lynn, Medford and Saugus. Asthma rates are also higher in Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Lynn and Revere.